Sharing Great Low-Budget Recipes – Good Food For Everybody!

The urge to share some delicious, simple and easy recipes for soft drinks came the same way most of my recipes do these days… My newest project is to make my own versions of popular convenience products, because the price of them is so much more than I want to pay… and the prices are getting higher and higher!

“Healthy” soft drinks are now sold everywhere, from green tea blends and vitamin water to fruit drinks with just enough “natural” content to justify the label ‘contains real fruit juice’ and charge $2 to $4 per can or bottle. Think about it, they’re all mostly water. YOU can do better than that, save a pile of money and impress (or attract!) your loved ones.

Below you’ll find out how to make a few of the more popular recipes I’ve been testing out on family and friends. After some started telling me that they started making their own, I knew it was a “Rough Times” worthy concept.

I store mine in recycled glass bottles (plastic can make things taste funny). As always, feel free to use whatever you have hanging around your kitchen and your imagination… enjoy!

Bring the water to a boil in a metal, enamel or ceramic pot big enough to hold the water, turn the heat to low. Add the green tea, ginseng, your choice of spices, juices and herbs and let simmer 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool a little and add citric acid, honey and sweetener to taste. Drink hot or cold.

If you’re using herbal teas only, add 1 tea bag for each 2 cups of water; other than that, balance the fruit, juices, sweeteners etc. that you add to make a delicious drink… it’s okay to taste it as you go along!

You can make your soft drinks as simple or as complicated as you like; reading the labels on ‘store-bought’ drinks will give you pretty good recipe ideas and the knowledge that you don’t need much to make a really great drink yourself. It’s a great way to use all those forgotten herbal teas in the back of your cupboard!

** NOTE: I avoid aluminum and ‘non-stick’ cookware; to me, they make things taste weird.

A few suggested soft drink mixtures

Cranberry – Apple:

Some like it hot! A batch of hot apple or cranberry flavored drink is delicious, welcome and warming on a cold or damp day; I like it cold too.

This recipe is really good served simmering hot into cups from a pot with a few cinnamon sticks and ginger floating in the drink… a real winter warmer!

Ingredients: Use herbal tea already flavored with these fruits, add citric acid and sweetener, and add or substitute:

– cranberry and apple juice or – make your own ‘juice’: boil a chopped, skin-on apple and a handful of cranberries (or dried fruits) for 30-60 minutes before straining it and adding with your other ingredients). (Yes, you can eat the leftover fruit… or put mash it and put it on ice cream or toast.)

– add spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon) and sweetener to taste

Lemon-Mint: A cool, refreshing drink on a hot summer day – simmer herbs together lemon balm, lemon peel, lemon juice, garden sorrel, and dried or fresh mint (a can of frozen lemonade will do for a base if that’s what you have). Sweeten to taste. Ginger and honey are really nice additions to this drink blend. Dress up with sprigs of fresh mint, thin slices of fruit for a gourmet touch!

Wild Women’s Nourishment in a Glass: Use ½ cup of the most nourishing herbs in your cupboard or straight out of your garden – approximately flowers, leaves and fruits of raspberry, strawberry, lemon balm, mint, nettles, red clover, sweet fern, violet, yarrow, dandelion, motherwort. Sweeten to taste, bottle and keep at the front of the fridge.

P.S. Check your herb books for healing combinations, which can probably all be made into delicious recipes.

(Safety alert! Remember that herbs should only be used fresh or completely dried, not half way dried.)

Options:

Instead of separate ingredients, combine a bag or two or a few teaspoons of your favorite herbal teas… or use up some that’s been hanging around your cupboard waiting for you…

No fresh fruit in the house? Use a few tablespoons of fruit jam, frozen fruit, a can of frozen lemonade or fruit drink and mix half-half with your herbal tea. Simmer dried apricots, cranberries, blueberries in water to make a flavored drink, go ahead, make your day… be creative!

Want a home made vitamin drink?

You can use your blender or the back of a spoon in a bowl and blend mild tasting vitamins like, chewable vitamin C, calcium and raw food supplements like kelp, beet and seaweed powder and green food supplements. Mix these well with a little liquid (water, herbal tea, etc.) before adding it to your soft drink recipe.

If you’ve already used citric acid in your soft drink, remember that it contributes to your vitamin C intake… you might want extra vitamin C if you’re fighting or nursing a cold.

How to Make Plain Black Teas Into Specialty teas!

Strawberry tea – plain black tea, add a spoonful of strawberry jam, strain into cups (or not), and milk and sugar to taste. Substitute apricot, blackcurrant or peach jam, or make combinations, use your imagination! How about s spiced fruit tea? Add marmalade with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg? Make a batch of your own iced tea with plain black tea and a little lemon, sweetener and other flavors?

Hints and Tips:

Citric acid can be found in the baking section of your supermarket or bulk foods store (and some drug stores). I pre-ordered a large quantity from my bulk food supplier for the same price as one of those little bottles – if kept dry in storage, that’s enough for years!

For less mess serving loose teas, use a tea ball, recycled cloth tea bag (make your own with a bit of organic cotton and string), a few layers of cheesecloth… or a fine strainer. Toss any bits in the bottom of your cup into the compost… or around outdoor plants… what a treat for the Earth!

Save travel containers for taking your own soft drinks with you instead of buying them on the road. Fill a small cooler with your own recycled bottles, travel cups, an ice pack, use a thermos for hot drinks… over a year you will find yourself saving hundreds of dollars!

The urge to share some delicious, simple and easy recipes for soft drinks came the same way most of my recipes do these days… My newest project is to make my own versions of popular convenience products, because the price of them is so much more than I want to pay… and the prices are getting higher and higher!

“Healthy” soft drinks are now sold everywhere, from green tea blends and vitamin water to fruit drinks with just enough “natural” content to justify the label ‘contains real fruit juice’ and charge $2 to $4 per can or bottle. Think about it, they’re all mostly water. YOU can do better than that, save a pile of money and impress (or attract!) your loved ones.

Below you’ll find out how to make a few of the more popular recipes I’ve been testing out on family and friends. After some started telling me that they started making their own, I knew it was a “Rough Times” worthy concept.

I store mine in recycled glass bottles (plastic can make things taste funny). As always, feel free to use whatever you have hanging around your kitchen and your imagination… enjoy!

Bring the water to a boil in a metal, enamel or ceramic pot big enough to hold the water, turn the heat to low. Add the green tea, ginseng, your choice of spices, juices and herbs and let simmer 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool a little and add citric acid, honey and sweetener to taste. Drink hot, warm or cold.

If you’re using herbal teas only, add 1 tea bag for each 2 cups of water; other than that, balance the fruit, juices, sweeteners etc. that you add to make a delicious drink… it’s okay to taste it as you go along!

You can make your soft drinks as simple or as complicated as you like; reading the labels on ‘store-bought’ drinks will give you pretty good recipe ideas and the knowledge that you don’t need much to make a really great drink yourself. It’s a great way to use all those forgotten herbal teas in the back of your cupboard!

** NOTE: I avoid plastic, aluminum and ‘non-stick’ cookware; to me, they make things taste weird.

A few suggested soft drink mixtures

Cranberry – Apple:

Some like it hot! A batch of hot apple or cranberry flavored drink is delicious, welcome and warming on a cold or damp day; I like it cold too.

This recipe is really good served simmering hot into cups from a pot with cinnamon sticks and ginger floating on top… a real winter warmer!

Ingredients: Use herbal tea already flavored with these fruits, add citric acid and sweetener, and add or substitute:

– cranberry and apple juice or – make your own ‘juice’: boil a chopped, skin-on apple and a handful of cranberries (or dried fruits) for 30-60 minutes before straining it and adding with your other ingredients). (Yes, you can eat the leftover fruit… or put mash it and put it on ice cream or toast… or back in your cup with a spoon.)

– add spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon) and sweetener to taste

Lemon-Mint: A cool, refreshing drink on a hot summer day – simmer herbs together lemon balm, lemon peel, lemon juice, garden sorrel, and dried or fresh mint (a can of frozen lemonade will do for a base if that’s what you have). Sweeten to taste. Ginger and honey are really nice additions to this drink blend. Dress up with sprigs of fresh mint, thin slices of fruit for a gourmet touch!

Wild Women’s Nourishment in a Glass: Use ½ cup of the most nourishing herbs in your cupboard or straight out of your garden – approximately flowers, leaves and fruits of raspberry, strawberry, lemon balm, mint, nettles, red clover, sweet fern, violet, yarrow, dandelion, motherwort. Sweeten to taste, bottle and keep at the front of the fridge.

P.S. Check your herb books for healing combinations, which can probably all be made into delicious recipes… if you haven’t already, try Gramma Willi’s Ginger Drink.

(Safety alert! Remember that herbs should only be used fresh or completely dried, not half way dried.)

Options:

Instead of separate ingredients, combine a few bags or teaspoons of your favorite herbal teas… or use up some that’s been hanging around your cupboard waiting for you…

No fresh fruit in the house? Use a few tablespoons of fruit jam, frozen fruit, a can of frozen lemonade or fruit drink and mix half-half with your herbal tea. Simmer dried apricots, cranberries, blueberries in water to make a flavored drink, go ahead, make your day… be creative!

Want a home made vitamin drink?

You can use your blender or the back of a spoon in a bowl and blend mild tasting vitamins like, chewable vitamin C, calcium and raw food supplements like kelp, beet and seaweed powder and green food supplements. Mix these well with a little liquid (water, herbal tea, etc.) before adding it to your soft drink recipe.

If you’ve already used citric acid in your soft drink, remember that it contributes to your vitamin C intake… you might want extra vitamin C if you’re fighting or nursing a cold.

How to Make Plain Black Teas Into Specialty teas!

Strawberry tea – plain black tea, add a spoonful of strawberry jam, strain into cups (or not), and milk and sugar to taste. Substitute apricot, blackcurrant or peach jam, or make combinations, use your imagination! How about s spiced fruit tea? Add marmalade with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg? Make a batch of your own iced tea with plain black tea and a little lemon, sweetener and other flavors?

Hints and Tips:

* Citric acid can be found in the baking section of your supermarket or bulk foods store (and some drug stores). I pre-ordered a large quantity from my bulk food supplier for the same price as one of those little bottles – if kept dry in storage, that’s enough for years!

* For less mess serving loose teas, use a tea ball, recycled cloth tea bag (make your own with a bit of organic cotton and string), a few layers of cheesecloth… or a fine strainer. Toss any bits in the bottom of your cup into the compost… or around outdoor plants… what a treat for the Earth!

Save travel containers for taking your own soft drinks with you instead of buying them on the road. Fill a small cooler with your own recycled bottles, travel cups, an ice pack, use a thermos for hot drinks… over a year you will find yourself saving hundreds of dollars!

Thanks for the great comments and info Frances… I really like the way citric acid helps to balance calcium in bones too! Of course fresh, organic citrus fruits would be preferable, but I can tell you that there have been countless times that I’ve given thanks for being able to make great soft drinks at home for pennies. You may want to check out the detailed info and references available at Wikipedia too! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_Acid
Good food for everyone!
Sisterly,
Gramma Willi